Sadly,
failure begets failure. As is the case with the district’s decision to give
passing grades to all students for the fourth quarter grading period. That is,
no student will receive a score below 70 percent, no matter what.

As the
Tribune-Review reported it, “Grading guidelines were adjusted to avoid
penalizing students with unequal access to remote learning technology.”

“The grading
guidelines are designed to hold students harmless,” said David May-Stein, chief
of school performance. “Not all kids are going to be able to do this
effectively to where learning can be accurately measured.”

So, all
students will be passed along to the next grade level, where the troubles for those
failing will only be compounded. That’s not a “policy,” that’s a train wreck of
a travesty.

Despite
dire budget projections
because of the coronavirus pandemic, the City of Pittsburgh still has not
broached employee layoffs.

At the same time,
it has been pleading with the federal government for bailout money.

But as the
Allegheny Institute’s Jake Haulk and Eric Montarti noted last week (in Policy
Brief Vol. 20, No. 14) – and it’s worth repeating here — “Asking for $127 million in federal or state
government aid before layoffs, spending cuts or use of … reserves is likely to
be a non-starter.”

Clearly, the city
is going to have to show it is serious about changing the way it operates.

But past being
prologue, that will be quite the challenge.

Colin
McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute
for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).